Ethnoarchaeology needs a general theory of behavior

Abstract

Ethnoarchaeology is the study of relationships between human behavior and its material consequences in the present. Practitioners hope to establish consistent links between the two that can be used to interpret archaeological evidence of human behavior in the past. Much of this work is descriptive: analysts seldom attempt to explain variation in the behavior they observe, instead simply documenting its archaeological implications. This limits the utility of their results. At best, they can only identify the past distribution of ethnographically known behavior. Evidence of anything else is uninterpretable; the behavioral variability it reflects inexplicable. This problem can be resolved only by linking ethnoarchaeology with a general theory of behavior. Neo-Darwinian behavioral ecology may provide the necessary framework. Recent ethnoarchaeological work on site structure and faunal remains, especially as applied in research on the Paleolithic, illustrates both the problem and the appeal of the proposed solution. © 1995 Plenum Publishing Corporation.